Lithuania Lawmakers Urge Probe of Chevron Unit, Shale-Gas Freeze

A Lithuanian parliamentary committee
called for a moratorium on shale-gas exploration in the Baltic
nation as well as a legal investigation of a local company
that’s half owned by Chevron Corp.

“The government should halt shale-gas exploration and
production until competent European Union institutions give an
opinion” on the safety of related technologies, the
Environmental Protection Committee said today in a statement on
the website of the legislature in Vilnius, the capital.

It should also check the legality of agreements that LL
Investicijos UAB has concluded with landowners and make sure
prosecutors “defend the public interest” with regard to the
oil and gas recovery company’s activities, the committee said.

Chevron, a U.S. energy company, last year bought 50 percent
of LL Investicijos and in January submitted the only bid in a
tender for shale-gas exploration rights in Lithuania.

President Dalia Grybauskaite this week said that Chevron’s
plans were important for helping the country find out how far
its shale-gas reserves can go as an alternative to Russian
natural gas.